Pichaya “Peach” Kositsawat, political science and comparative literature double major, is the recipient of a 2012 Donald A. Strauss Public Service Scholarship. The honor annually recognizes young leaders in California working to pursue lives and work of public service and social change. Award winners receive $10,000 to complete a high-impact public service project. Kositsawat is one of only 14 students in California to receive the Strauss Scholarship this year and she is the only recipient from UCI.

She is also the sole recipient of the 2012 Elena B. and William R. Schonfeld Scholarship, awarded by the School of Social Sciences.

Kositsawat, a Corona resident, is currently studying in Madrid through UCI’s Education Abroad Program.

For her Strauss-funded project, she will collaborate with a team of peers to mentor and tutor low-income Thai students in English at a Bangkok partner school while cultivating free thinking by providing the students with direct access to the arts. The Thai students, in turn, will teach what they learn to UCI students as a mode of cultural exchange.

Her project attempts to rethink traditional educational pedagogy, foster community development, and increase the Thai students' economic possibilities and abilities to participate fully in educational opportunities. The work will advance a self-sustaining model for global language learning in the public sphere and provide valuable educational development expertise to low income students in Thailand. This project builds upon work she began as an English teacher in Bangkok in 2009. In that role, she taught English language and literature to six Thai students in grades 4 through 11, utilizing individualized and group instruction. She designed and customized syllabi to meet the needs and abilities of each student.

Kositsawat is a founding member and editor of The Exhibit, UCI’s first humanities magazine. She has served as a tutor for UCI’s Humanities Out There program and a peer mentor for the Campuswide Honors Program. She has been an active member of the Olive Tree Initiative, the student-led initiative that promotes dialogue and discussion of the Israeli-Arab conflict, and an active participant in Jumpstart, where she has volunteered her time as a pre-school tutor for children from low-income backgrounds.

As a member of UCI’s Global Law Brigades, Kositsawat traveled to Torti, Panama to research Panamanian law, shadow lawyers, organize and develop educational workshops and provide legal education and advice to Panamanian citizens.

Her research as an undergrad has been funded by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), and she presented her findings at the program’s annual symposium as well as at the Undergraduate Conference in Critical Theory, both held in 2011.

Past awards include the 2011 UCI Alumni Association Distinguished Anteater Award for demonstrated commitment to the university through service and excellence and the 2011 Dr. Ryoji Yokoyama Undergraduate Scholarship for academic achievement and work in advancing international relations. In 2012, she was inducted to the Phi Beta Kappa national honor society.

Her long term goal is to pursue a doctorate in political theory and international law, and to become a research professor at a public university.

The Donald A. Strauss Public Service Scholarship Foundation was created as a memorial to the late Don Strauss, who demonstrated a strong, lifelong commitment to public service and education. The Foundation annually awards $10,000 scholarships to no fewer than 14 California college juniors who've reflected a similar commitment. Learn more.

The Elena B. and William R. Schonfeld Scholarship is awarded annually in the School of Social Sciences to the outstanding undergraduate in the next to graduating class who combines excellence in scholarship with dedication to the university community and the highest level of achievement in other fields.